Exhibit A.pdf

EXHIBIT A- Request for Proposal on Herptile Survey Work

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Work described herein will be completed by the CONTRACTOR on dates identified by project manager prior to initiation of project for an amount specified on each project’s approved purchase order per the rates provided by the prospective contractor. All overhead costs, including travel and lodging, office supplies, and copying costs should be built into the rate schedule provided by the contractor. Meetings will occur when needed between the contractor, the project manager, and park staff to provide feedback and status updates. All park communication will be vetted through the project manager. Contractor should note that the purchase order agreement is subject to the standard terms and conditions linked to the PO form. All deliverables produced as part of this effort become property of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) but may retain the authors name as a courtesy.

BACKGROUND

The goals of this project are threefold:

State Park Herptile Surveys

Prior to on the ground survey work:

1. Compile comprehensive herptile species lists for specified project locations through:

a. research of existing data provided by the Resource Stewardship Program and publicly available data sources (ex: Hammerson habitat maps, Young habitat maps, CPW habitat maps, local herpers, State

Park species lists, iNaturalist, etc…),

b. communication with park staff.

2. Identify which herptile species which may occur on the park(s) are of conservation interest (Listed Endangered

Species Act species, State Threatened and Endangered list, CO State Wildlife Action Plan tier 1 and tier 2 species, others) and identify the park habitats they use/would use

a. Park vegetation, wetland, soil mapping information will be provided by the project manager.

Surveys for Herptile Species of Conservation Interest

1. Identify potential habitat for target species of conservation interest,

2. Identify the best time(s) to survey for these species based upon their breeding behaviors, accepted survey methods, and geographic location. Document these time periods and schedule field survey work according to this timing.

3. Survey for these species following accepted species survey protocols to identify the presence/absence of the species, the location(s) of observations, and the location of breeding occurrences. Document observations using

GPS and create GIS shapefiles of observations using templates provided by the project manager.

Identify and Map key herptile habitats within park(s)

1. Quantitatively and spatially document and map key potential habitat, occupied habitat, and breeding habitat areas,

2. Document where in the park(s) each species occupies habitat and where breeding observations are made, and

3. Documenting which species are using areas as key migration stopovers.

This information will help State Parks manage and protect key herptile habitat areas, conserve species of conservation interest, promote herptile species conservation, as well as to help compare species diversity between parks and diversity within the parks over time.

The long-term concept is to create surveys that could be repeated in the future by Resource Stewardship staff and/or park volunteers. Surveys should be created so that access by volunteers is possible. Contractor will attempt to identify local experts in the geographical area of the park that have the capability to fill this role.

Direction in the survey report to help achieve this goal will require:

1. Clear communication of survey protocols by the contractor in the field and within the survey report,

2. Clear identification and illustration of survey areas through photos, maps, and GPS locations, and

3. Good coordination by the contractor with CPW staff and volunteers.

When local experts are included in the project to lend their knowledge to the survey, these goals can be more easily achieved. Efforts will be made by the contractor, and with assistance of the project manager, to include CPW

Resource Stewardship Program staff and local species experts from the public in the field survey process.

The table below will be populated with project site specific information on a project by project basis. This information will include the parks where these surveys will be conducted, their acreages, the numbers of plots and the types of surveys. The number of plot locations is based on what can be accomplished in 1 day in the field.

Communication with the project manager should occur if contractor feels that a second survey day is needed.

Project site maps will be provided to plot point count station locations prior to the start of field work.

Communication with park management in regards to count station locations will occur to ensure resource management needs are addressed by the surveys.

Park

Total

Land

Acres

Task A –

Herptofauna Surveys:

General/traps/transects

Task B –

Interpretation/education materials

XX State Park Herptile Survey TBD TBD – traps & transects Y

XX State Park Herptile Survey TBD TBD – traps & transects Y

XX State Park Herptile

Survey

TBD TBD – traps & transects Y

I. DELIVERABLE DETAIL- Herptile Surveys:

For this project, the contractor will conduct several types of herpetofauna surveys. All species names used in the deliverables of these surveys will follow industry standards outlined in the Society for the Study of

Amphibians and Reptiles standard English names (and scientific names) in their Scientific and standard

English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding our confidence in understanding, 7th edition. All surveys will follow protocols identified in Partners for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation PARC Technical Publication IM-1 Inventory and Monitoring: Recommended

Techniques for Reptiles and Amphibians (http://parcplace.org/species/inventory-and-monitoring/). Through survey work and research, contractor will produce the following deliverables:

A. Communication – http://parcplace.org/species/inventory-and-monitoring/

The contractor will:

● Communicate planned field dates to the Project Manager for approval and so that the Project

Manager can communicate with the Park Manager well ahead of field survey dates (preferably at least 2 weeks’ notice).

● Meet with State Park management to describe field survey methods and to make arrangements for getting in and out of the park during the required hours if necessary (especially if after-hours access to park areas is required).

● Arrange for campsite reservations (if the contractor desires to do so) through the state parks reservation system, including payment.

● Make sure any permanent markers that are to be used for the survey are approved by the Park

Manager prior to their placement. Marker locations should be clearly described to park management and placement of markers should be unobtrusive and not noticeable to the general public.

● Communicate in advance (at least 2 weeks) with the Project Manager so that Stewardship staff may have an opportunity to coordinate with the contractor and CPW staff or volunteers to come in the field to participate in the search and learn search criteria.

B. Survey Methods, Locations, and Report Appendix – This section of the report will serve to inform the Project Manager, Park Manager and CPW staff regarding methods and specific tasks accomplished, and potentially as a guide for future surveys.

The Contractor will:

● Communicate strategies regarding methods and survey routes/ locations, as directed in the table above, on a map (as necessary) prior to field work through coordination with the Project

Manager. Project Manager will facilitate a meeting with Park Management to ensure park management needs are addressed by the survey and its accompanying report.

o Ideally, survey routes and/or locations will be oriented so that all habitats/biomes found in the particular park are represented, the greatest diversity of herpetofauna can be accounted for, and surveys can be conducted in the shortest period of time.

o Placement of survey routes and location areas can allow for the maximum amount of habitat areas to be included in the survey with the minimum amount of time and stations.

o Provide a detailed report as outlined in Section E of this document

C. Interpretation and Education – This section of the report will serve to identify herpetofauna species and their key habitat areas in the parks so Park Managers and CPW staff may provide appropriate interpretation and education to visitors.

The contractor will provide within the Report:

● Information on herptile species and their key habitat areas in the parks, particularly near trails and other public areas

● Interpretation and education ideas, strategies, and notes on effective interpretation of species.

o CPW will provide the Colorado Quick Key for inclusion as an appendix of the report.

o Ideas for Park Herptile brochure, interpretation signage, and visitor center display, etc… o Research and species identification resources (e.g. publications and relevant organizations/ individuals), when available, will be provided to the Project and Park

Managers as an appendix to the report.

D. Volunteer “pilot” surveys - The goals are to identify strategies and individuals to monitor key habitat areas to regularly inform Park Managers and CPW staff.

The contractor will:

● Work closely with Park Managers and the Project Manager to identify existing Parks volunteers and/or individuals who could perform annual or routine monitoring of herptile species at specified Parks o Individuals may be identified through the Colorado chapter of Partners in Amphibian and

Reptile Conservation (CO PARC), the North American Field Herping Association

(NAFHA), and/ or by other means to achieve objectives.

● Identify repeatable methods to create historical observation and/ or scientific accounts of herptile species o Methods may include, but are not limited to, species surveys, location surveys, and route monitoring.

o Methods will be specified to indicate “windows of opportunity” for the timing of surveys based on species life history traits, weather conditions, and Park access (via trails/locations, hours/time of day, etc).

E. Final Report - The contractor will write a short report for each specified project location, that will include:

● Cover page with park name, photo from park survey, survey date

● Table of Contents, List of Appendices, List of Tables, List of Figures

● A list of all species identified through this sampling method (lists can be the tables attached as an appendix – shown in Attachments).

● Purpose Section: Introduction, Acknowledgements, Park Area/project location description.

● Methods section (document researchers names and dates and refer to the monitoring protocol), see section B. above.

● Survey Route and Location Map with applicable park infrastructure/roads/trails/campgrounds.

● Results and Discussion: Summary of findings, most widespread species, most numerous species, least widespread species, least numerous species, species richness and average number of species per habitat type, results by survey location (total species, mean # of species, mean # of individuals) o Results – for each survey performed, a section covering:

▪ Short summary of observations

▪ Common/widespread species observed,

▪ Most numerous species observed,

▪ Least widespread species/species seen

▪ Results by route/ location – total species o Short discussion of

▪ The most interesting finds/sensitive/conservation concern species,

● Discuss Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) rankings; CNHP, Federal, State, Southwest Partners for Amphibian and Reptile

Conservation Priority Species Lists, and with respect to other relevant resources.

▪ Observation locations of sensitive/conservation concern species within the park

● Map and table when possible

▪ Herpetofauna habitats of special interest

▪ Areas that may have management implications as related to herptile conservation (ex: protect area A5 - the best area for amphibian breeding/ reproduction, protect area A3 - the best area for reptile hibernacula, monitor for

Spadefoots after warm rain events as this species is difficult to detect, etc.).

● Conclusions section about herpetofauna habitat in the park (such as an overall value statement about that park that this is a very important and diverse area, or it’s a pretty common area and not that diverse).

● Management Considerations and Implications o Implications section which will document issues such as how the herpetofauna diversity relates to other areas in the region, make note of important species or breeding areas that management should pay particular attention to, or document any unusual lack of species.

o Recommendations for the conservation of herpetofauna species and the sustaining of resources at the park for the enjoyment of future generations.

▪ Management recommendations (including habitat restoration if appropriate) for Park Managers.

▪ Recommendations will be compiled and communicated for implementing volunteer surveys, as a single surveyor and for group surveys, with notes on methods, locations, and species notes.

▪ Survey routes and/or locations will be GPS’d by the contractor and photos will be taken of the route/ location for the purpose of finding and repeating the survey in the future.

o Recommendations for future surveys (what would you do different, what individual species should be targeted, when to survey)

● Final Report will include the following as Appendices:

o Herpetofauna Species List o Protocol (survey) o Metadata paragraph for GPS/ GIS data o Mapping o Photographs o Survey route/ location notes o Herpetofauna Resources - ex: Colorado Quick Key and other identification resources o Literature Cited

F. Appendices

● Herpetofauna Species List – Complete lists will be compiled, one for each of the parks, when applicable. Template species list spreadsheet will be provided by Project Manager on a project by project basis.

o The contractor will start with any available/current herpetofauna lists; include observations through this project, then use existing data, personal knowledge/expertise, and any other source information to create as complete of a list as possible. Species will be broken down by guild, whether they are breeding or not, habitat, and special status columns. “Likelihood to be present” column will reflect if the species was seen in the survey, and if not how likely the species is to be seen at the park. This Excel sheet will be an appendix to the report. Comprehensive species list for each park. List will include:

▪ Common Name;

▪ Scientific Name;

▪ Breeding Status

▪ Habitat used (use habitat types and codes from the Breeding Bird Atlas);

▪ Likelihood to be present

▪ Agency/Sensitive Status

▪ Federal/ESA Status

▪ CO Status

▪ Other Watchlist

▪ Exotic (Y if true)

▪ Source (Indicate what source put the species on the list. Ex: Ehrenberger2014, Herptile Atlas, Martin2013, etc…) o Use exactly the same template format provided by project manager.

● Protocol – A monitoring protocol should be developed for herptile surveys for this Park, and potentially serving as a usable model for other Parks. The protocol is intended to supply volunteers with the guidance and information needed to repeat these point counts and area counts.

The contractor will make changes to this protocol as necessary to make it complete or correct and provide the corrected version.

● Metadata paragraph for GPS/ GIS data -

● Mapping – The contractor will provide point locations for task B as UTM coordinates in the spreadsheet. Any polygon information will be provided as areas drawn on basemaps in hardcopy that are scanned as electronic jpegs and provided electronically so that they can be georeferenced and digitized to get the information in GIS. Every area drawn must have an identifying number or code to link it to the Excel tables. Each Excel file will be named and formatted as indicated and will come with a short metadata paragraph in a separate text file (same name but ending in

.met) as shown in Attachments. GPS coordinates will have full datum information provided and will be in GPS standards UTM NAD83 CONUS.

a. Map of survey routes/ locations that displays roads, trails, topographic features, and any other identifying land characteristics the contractor feels will help in locating.

b. Survey Route/ Location Notes

● Photographs - Photographs of survey route/ location with numbers, GPS lat/long coordinates, and a brief narrative describing the location and how to find markers. (NOTE: Adding people to photographs, when possible, help with location identification.)

● Herpetofauna resources – Organizations, websites, and appropriate materials as determined of potential use by Parks that are Colorado and national-based.

a. Herptile viewing/handling ethics statement

● Literature Cited – document any references used in the compiling of the deliverables.

● Survey Credits – list survey participants, their title, and organization/affiliation.

GENERAL NOTES:

All deliverables produced as part of this effort become property of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) but may retain the authors name as a courtesy.

● Data o If data is collected using the North American Field Herping Association (NAFHA) phone application and website, the app should be set to a “private” setting so that data is protected while the research project is ongoing. *This data will be property of CPW, and will be maintained in accordance with agency policies and State of Colorado regulations and will not be made public by the contractor.

● Publications o External of Agency – Through permission from CPW, contractor may publish findings in collaboration with agency staff

II DUE DATES - Herptile Surveys

Site Visits:

● 1-2 visits between dates identified by project manager prior to initiation of project for herpetofauna observations

● Report and Mapping Due – dates identified by project manager prior to initiation of project

PAYMENTS & PAYMENT SCHEDULE:

Please promptly provide a budget on this work that includes an itemized price for each park and each task (i.e.

individual costs for each Tasks A, B, C… at ABC State Park). This budget will reference the rate provided on page 18 of the RFP form which will include travel time and rates as related to each project location.

Invoices will be allowed per deliverable and with interim payments as percentages of deliverables are completed, but all invoices will reflect the percentage of the deliverable that has been completed as related to the total project budget.

● Invoice 1: Meet/Communicate with Project Manager, Park and SWA staff, conduct field inventories – 50%

● Invoice 2: Submit draft electronic deliverables – spreadsheets of species, maps – 15%

● Invoice 3: Submit final spreadsheets (including species & survey summary), draft Report, and draft Appendices – 15%

● Invoice 4: Submit final Report with tables & appendices and Herptile Species List – 20%

STANDARDS:

1. All documents will be delivered in both MS Word and PDF and all spreadsheets in MS Excel.

2. Mapping data will be provided in hardcopy for digitizing as needed, on a TOPO map electronic jpeg, as

GIS shapefile or in a similar format pre-approved by project manager.

3. Point locations will be provided with GPS coordinates in the CPW Herptile Data Excel Spreadsheet with complete attributed information and with complete datum information.

4. Excel file and all maps will come with a metadata paragraph (a text file with the same name as the .xls ending in .met) listing the project name, purpose of the project, who performed the work, when the work was performed, and equipment used (such as GPS unit).

5. GPS coordinates will have full datum information provided and will be in UTM NAD83 CONUS Zone 13 and will be in decimal degrees.

Herptile Survey Materials that will be provided by Project Manager upon initiation of the project:

A. CPW Herptile Data Excel Spreadsheet.

B. Herptile_Survey_example_species_list

C. Example of metadata paragraph

D. Park Map (pdf) with ortho background, park boundary, roads, trails, campgrounds, and other infrastructure.

E. Park Vegetation Map (pdf).

F. Three letter park codes standard to the Resource Stewardship Program

G. Species Names: the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles: Scientific and standard

English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding our confidence in understanding, 7th edition http://ssarherps.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/HC_39_7thEd.pdf http://ssarherps.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/HC_39_7thEd.pdf http://ssarherps.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/HC_39_7thEd.pdf